PHILOSOVHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 



485 



TOL, XVII.] 



of mankind, than any thing of the kind yet extant. It exhibits the number 

 of people in the city of Breslaw of all ages, from the birth to extreme old age, 

 and thereby shows the chances of mortality of all ages ; and likewise, how to 

 make a certain estimate of the value of annuities for lives, which hitherto has 

 been only done by an imaginary valuation ; also the chances there are, that a 

 person of any age proposed, may live to any other age given ; with many more, 

 as I shall hereafter show. This table shows the number of persons that are 

 living in the ages current as annexed to them. 



Thus it appears, that the whole people of Breslaw consist of 34000 souls, 

 being the sum total of the persons of all ages in the table. The first use hereof 

 is to show the proportion of men able to bear arms, which are those between 18 

 and 56, rather than 16 and 60; the one being generally too weak to bear the 

 fatigues of war, and the weight of arms, and the other too infirm from age, 

 notwithstanding particular instances to the contrary. By the table there are 

 found in this city 1 1 997 persons under 1 8, and 3950 above 56, which together 

 make 15947 ; so that the remainder to 34000, being 18053, are persons be- 

 tween those ages ; at least one half of these are males, or 9027 : so that the 

 whole force this city can raise of fencible men, as the Scotch call them, is about 

 9000, or .38^, or somewhat more than a quarter of the number of souls : which 

 may perhaps pass for a rule for all other places. 



The second use of this table is to show the different degrees of mortality, or 

 ratl\er vitality, in all ages ; for if the number of persons of any age, remaining 

 after one year, be divided by the difference between that and the number of 

 the age proposed, it shows the odds there is, that a person of that age does not 

 die in a year. As for instance, a person of 25 years of age has the odds of 



